Ghettoside
3/5
Strangely, I didn't love this book. It has all the elements present that should make a nice popular sociology read, but I found it rather tedious even though the central argument that over-policing actually causes violence was intriguing. Some factual information here was well-presented and used for novel, to me, sub-arguments -- I found the history of black on black violence interesting -- but I found overall this never seemed to really get off the ground. I think Leovy needed to decide whether she wanted to do an ethnography or write an argument and the waffling between the two made both aspects weak contributing to the plodding nature of her text. Maybe it was my expectations -- the book was compared to Simon's Homicide, an outstanding ethnography -- which sets a high bar not of Leovy's choosing. This is not Homicide. I think going in expecting something on par with that book is destined to cause a let-down. If you want an interesting account of cops and crime, choose Homicide. If you want a good ethnography dealing with "ghetto culture", try Gangleader for a Day. If you want true scholarly texts on black-on-black violence, go to sociology and criminal justice journals. Give Leovy a pass. (3/11/2016 Addition: My Goodreads friend Kemper recently more positively reviewed Ghettoside here. While I still think Ghettoside is over-rated, I think his opinion is well-reasoned and gives an interesting alternative perspective).
Please see my Goodreads review of Ghettoside if you have comments or want to talk about Ghettoside!
